Phuture Phillies

Per Baseball America’s weekly transactions update yesterday, Cardenas has been placed on the 7 day DL. Hopefully Jeff can give us an update, but it was probably a precautionary move more than anything.

Just figured I’d throw this up now. The Phillies finally did the right thing putting Jimmy Rollins on the DL. Brad Harman gets the call, and I can only imagine that is because Jason Donald still isn’t 100% after being hit on the hand a week ago. Harman has come a long way after a really disappointing 2006 to making his big league debut less than 2 years later. Heres hoping for all the best for Brad.

Alright gang, here are this week’s updated minor league rosters. You can compare this to the week 3 roster and week 2 rosterand week 1 roster that I had posted earlier if you would like.

Quite a few cuts all in around in the minors this week, with one more round left to go this week before minor league rosters are finalized next Monday.

I’ll keep on the lookout for each new officially posted roster and keep them updated here as needed.

I don’t know how much of a limb I am going out on to project this, but I have updated my Clearwater Threshers website with this (click here) as my projected 2008 line up. The projection is based on the latest 2008 ST roster mixed in with a little intuition. I’m guessing I’ll have about 20 of the 25 players correct, with a few free agent signings thrown in at the last minute just to mess things up and maybe a few other moves in the mix.

In case you didn’t see it in the comments section of a previous post, Tyler Mach and Jarrod Freeman have both retired, based on the info thats been uncovered. I guess maybe it somewhat justifies my harsh criticism of the Mach pick at the time. Most college seniors aren’t elite prospects, but most stick around for at least a full season. Its really a shame to waste a 4th round pick on a guy who is only going to play 2 months of pro ball. Freeman is more surprising, as he did seem to have a few legit tools, though he was probably going to take time to develop. But, its just a reminder that pro ball, especially for guys who are facing a major uphill climb, isn’t for everyone. Which makes a guy like Chris Coste all that more amazing.

I hit the Carpenter Complex to check out the first day of minor league games.  It was the Clearwater (Group 3) team and the Lakewood (Group 4) teams against the Orioles.  Nothing of terrific interest to report except that I did pick up the newly updated minor league rosters.  This version has the guys broken out into five groups not four like the previous version that I had posted a while back. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve gotten a rash of e-mails in the last two days asking about the two new prospects the Phillies signed, infielder Jakub Sladek from the Czech Republic and pitcher Todd Van Steensel out of Australia. I wish I had more information on these guys, but finding info on foreign prospects, especially foreign prospects from Australia and Eastern Europe is not the easiest task. I’ll try and find out what I can, but it’s doubtful we’ll know much of anything about these guys until they come stateside. The Phillies have been harvesting the prospect waters in Australia for a while, and it looks like Brad Harman and Drew Naylor might have been nice finds, so we’ll see what happens here. Thanks to those who posted the link here and who e-mailed, you guys are very quick on the draw.

The Phillies signed Pedro Feliz to a 2 year deal yesterday. As many know, Feliz is a terrible hitter, struggling to post an OB% above .300 and making outs like it’s his job (918 over the last 2 seasons), but he’s also an incredibly good defensive 3B…..one of the very best in baseball. Before the contract was agreed, the Phillies 40 man roster was maxed at 40. When Feliz is added, one guy will have to be removed. There are a few obvious candidates, TJ Bohn and John Ennis leading the list, but this could also signal a Wes Helms trade. Helms had a nightmare of a season last year, both with the bat and the glove, but he’s still signed relatively cheap and only for one year, so you might be able to find a taker. Don’t expect much of a prospect in return, but an interesting hitter would be nice. What this does do is pretty much set the position player side of the 25 man roster, sans a major injury. Non-roster invitees like Golson, Brennan King, Brandon Watson, and Pete LaForest are all likely ticketed for triple A Allentown. The interesting battles will be on the pitching side. With one rotation spot and two or three bullpen spots likely on the line, depending on the health of Adam Eaton and Tom Gordon.

In other news, I’ve added a video of Carlos Carrasco on his profile page, and I also did a page writeup for Julian Sampson as well, complete with a scouting report and his draft video. To date, I’ve completed profile pages for Carrasco, Sampson, Cardenas, Brown, Carpenter, Drabek, and Outman. More to come in the next few days/weeks.

EDIT: > Feliz was a Type B free agent. San Francisco gets a compensation round pick for him, but we don’t lose a pick.